Numerous flying toys with various attachments or streamers are known in the art. For example, single streamers attached to balls and other aerial toys are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,576 to Winga or U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,472 to Meyer. In other examples (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,447 to Clark or U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,931 to Gormley), the inventors teach aerial toys with multiple streamers. Streamers may also have the shape of a sock as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,643 to McEvoy or U.S. Pat. No. Re34,032 to Callaghan. Alternatively, a streamer may be rotatably attached to a kite as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,648 to Waters, or the entire kite may be a rotating aerial object as taught by Schloss in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,642. While streamers on balls and other aerial toys are often thought to be more attractive and inviting than toys without such appendages, the time flight of the toy is typically reduced due to the increase in drag.
In other known toys, a screw-shaped tail is part of a football as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,398 to Myers. In such a toy, rotational momentum is provided to the football that spins along the central axis of the spiral-like tail. Similarly, as taught by Manning in U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,321, a fur fletched arrow has a fur wound along the shaft in a screw-like manner to rotationally stabilize flight of the arrow. The flight stability and even time of such aerial toys is typically increased, however, such toys often require substantial effort or velocity to achieve a spinning motion.
Further known toys with a coil are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,984 to Lin in which a ball is rotatably attached to a coiled spring that is covered by a cloth to simulate a snake. When the ball is rolled on the ground, Lin describes the action of the coil as chasing after the ball while the ball is rolling. Similarly, as described in published U.S. App. No. 2002/0197933, a rolling coil is presented by Shea. As Shea's toy is intended for a cat, the size of the coil is limited to about 2 inches with a weight of less than 2 ounces to at least retain some functionality. Finally, an elastic coiled lasso is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,684 to Marlin, wherein the lasso is held on one end by a user while the other end uncoils and wraps around a target before wrapping around itself. Therefore, while Lin, Shea, and Marlin include a coil in their toys, none of those toys is used or even fit for use as a flying toy.
Therefore, while numerous toys are known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Consequently, there is still a need for improved toys, and especially flying toys.